Power play woes trickling down to other areas?

Power play woes trickling down to other areas?

COLUMBUS, Ohio The Blackhawks power play has been a source of angst, frustration, basically everything but goals, through the first part of this season.

Through their first 10 games the Blackhawks were able to get points and victories despite that power play. They were doing more than enough scoring at even strength, and even adding a few on 4 on 4 and on the penalty kill. Now those wells have dried up, too, exposing the Blackhawks anemic power play (5 for 57, a league-worst 30th) even more.

It looks as if the power play woes have had a trickle-down effect, the struggles there seeping into other parts of the Blackhawks game. After scoring plenty early, the Blackhawks have just two goals in their last two games. And its a frustrating trend they want to reverse on Thursday night when they play the Columbus Blue Jackets.

We have to stop worrying about everything. We just have to go out and play, get pucks to the net and get ugly goals, defenseman Brent Seabrook said. When your power pay is struggling, you cant look to make the extra pass to have the back-door tap-in. You just have to get pucks and bodies to the net, bang away and score. Thats the best way to get off this slump and get that rolling.

And a few switches dont hurt, either. The Blackhawks trotted out two revamped power-play units on Wednesday. One featured Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Patrick Sharp, Seabrook and Marian Hossa. The other had Duncan Keith, Nick Leddy, Marcus Kruger, Steve Montador and Andrew Brunette.

The Blackhawks were weathering the power-play issues beautifully to start this season. But the teams last few games havent been dazzling in many aspects. Even in Florida, where they collected three of four points, the Blackhawks frittered away two two-goal leads. And their losses to Vancouver and St. Louis were bad ones, where the Blackhawks compete level and puck passing were both questionable.

So is the lack of power-play confidence spreading elsewhere?

I think that can happen, coach Joel Quenneville said. When your scorers arent scoring all of a sudden, they may not be as patient or comfortable with the puck. Youve seen our puck-possession game, our passing -- or lack of it -- wasnt very good. We dont want to make excuses but we want to be confident out there. And lets make sure were making direct passes and we want the puck and were putting it on each others stick.

The power play will start clicking eventually. And as the confidence returns for that, the trickle-up effect should kick in, too.

We need some repairing on our power play. We need an ugly goal to get some confidence. Sometimes that can erode our team game, Quenneville said. There has to be more urgency across the board in our team game. Everything else will work itself out but we want to make sure were comfortable on the power play.

Two seasons ago Darling and Raanta battled for the Blackhawks’ backup spot. Friday marked their first head-to-head matchup, and it was stellar.

The Blackhawks thought they broke the scoreless tie six minutes into the third period, when Marian Hossa got one past Raanta. But the Rangers challenged for offside and officials agreed, nullifying the goal.